Robert Taylor

For 50 years, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has supported and promoted research on religious involvement among older adult populations. This article discusses the ways that NIA funding has 1) broadened our understanding of how religious involvement is conceptualized and measured; 2) explored the important role of social networks and interac...

Although obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with clinically significant distress, many OCD patients do not seek treatment. Studies show that Black Americans with OCD are even less likely to obtain treatment due to differences in access. This study explored demographic and symptom outcomes associated with mental health service use for...

Spirituality is a significant cultural strength and resource for Black emerging adults. Numerous studies show that increasing numbers of emerging adults tend to identify themselves as being spiritual but not religious. However, no studies to date have identified the demographic correlates of spirituality for Black emerging adults from different eth...

Background Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric conditions worldwide, and the incidence of anxiety disorders among adults in the U.S. have increased over the last decade. Anxiety disorders can have debilitating effects on multiple areas of functioning and quality of life. Recently, social isolation has emerged as an important...

Social isolation is associated with worse health; however, few studies have examined the health effects of isolation among African Americans. The purpose of this study is to evaluate associations between social isolation and self-rated physical and oral health from the National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative sample of African...

James S. Jackson (1944–2020) is remembered as a groundbreaking social psychologist whose career contributions in scholarship, research, and service were fundamental to the field of psychology. This article briefly outlines his career-long work and contributions. A strong believer in interdisciplinary work, his research spanned other related social...

Background: Studies suggest Black Americans have a lower prevalence of depression than White Americans despite greater exposure to risk factors for depression across the life course. We examined whether this paradox exists among students in higher education, and whether the paradox may be partly explained by racial differences in reports of impair...

Racial socialization is a dynamic process for youth of color, especially for Black adolescents. What is less known is how the provision of racial socialization practices and messages may differ for varying ethnic groups of Black adolescents and what sociodemographic factors contribute to this difference. As such, this cross-sectional study investig...

Race science attributes differences in human populations to biology and genetics that reflect a hierarchy of human races with whiteness at its pinnacle. This article examining the history of race science and current family scholarship and practice contends that race science matters for family science. We discuss (1) white supremacy, the development...

Objective Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder requiring timely diagnosis and treatment, with special attention needed for Black populations in the U.S. Yet, stakeholders often fail to recognize Black communities' heterogeneous ethnic composition, thus not allowing diverse sociocultural realities to inform PTSD interventi...

This study examined the relationship between eight measures of religious involvement and five anxiety disorders among a nationally representative sample of African-Americans (N = 3403). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess 12-month...

Objectives: This study examined the frequency and impact of traumatic events on the mental health of older African American and Black Caribbean adults. Methods: The current study used data from the National Survey of American Life of 1,135 African American and 426 Black Caribbean adults aged 50 and older. Analysis examined the impact of traumatic e...

Objectives This study examined differences in major and everyday discrimination between African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and non-Latino White older adults. Methods Data are taken from the National Survey of American Life. Measures of major (e.g., unfairly fired and harassed by police) and everyday (e.g., treated with less courtesy, insulted, a...

Objectives This study investigates church based informal social support among older African Americans and Black Caribbeans. In particular, we examine the correlates of receiving emotional support as well as negative interactions (e.g., criticisms) from church members. Method The analysis is based on the older African American (n=829) and Black Car...

Racism and the Life Course: Social and Health Equity for Older Black Americans examines the impacts of systemic racism on adult development and the aging trajectories of Black Americans. Using the life course perspective (e.g., socio-historical events, linked lives), we discuss systemic racism as a structural driver of practices and policies (e.g.,...

There is increasing evidence suggesting the influence social isolation has on health outcomes and mental well-being. Chronic medical conditions, such as pain, have been shown to impact social relationships and isolation among majority populations, but there is little evidence documenting this relationship among African Americans. To address this la...

Objective This study examined the correlates of involvement in extended family social support networks among African Americans. Background Previous literature has documented the importance of informal social support from extended family members for the African American population. Most research has investigated black-white differences in network i...

Using data from the National Survey of American Life, we investigated the social and demographic correlates of fictive kin network involvement among African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and non-Latino Whites. Specifically, we examined the factors shaping whether respondents have fictive kin, the number of fictive present kin in their networks, and...

Fictive kin are individuals who are not related biologically or legally family members but are conferred all of the expectations, obligations, norms, and behaviors that are typically associated with family members. Early ethnographic and qualitative studies on impoverished African Americans depicted fictive kinship as a strategy of necessity used b...

This study investigates the use of religious coping among African Americans and Black Caribbeans with 12-month DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. Data from the National Survey of American Life is used to examine three indicators of religious coping: 1) using prayer and other spiritual practices for mental health problems, 2) the importance of prayer in...

Social support networks are an integral component of an individual’s life. This presentation investigates the complementary roles of family and church members as sources of informal social support among African Americans. The analysis utilizes the African American sub-sample of the National Survey of American Life. A pattern variable was constructe...

The concept of “double jeopardy”—being both older and Black—describes how racism and ageism together shape higher risks for coronavirus exposure, COVID-19 disease, and poor health outcomes for older Black adults. Black people and older adults are the two groups most affected by COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Double jeopardy, as a race- and age-i...

Objectives: Discrimination is associated with several negative social, economic, and health consequences. Past research focuses on the impact of discrimination while less is known about both the type and correlates of discrimination, particularly among older adults. Methods: Using the National Survey of American Life, we employed latent class an...

Despite the rapid growth of the Black Caribbean population in the United States, we know little about the presentation and prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among these groups. This study examines the demographic correlates and the effect of racial discrimination on OCD symptoms among a nationally-representative sample of Black Cari...

Social relationships are important for promoting health and well-being in men and confer many benefits that help prevent the onset and mitigate adverse impacts of disease and disability. Social isolation, or the absence of social relationships, is associated with a wide range of negative health outcomes; however, most studies of social isolation ha...

Background Despite research on the dramatic changes in marriage, there is a dearth of research on the correlates of marriage and romantic involvement among older African Americans. This is an important omission because although the marriage decline is universal, African Americans show the steepest decline in marriage rates. Methods Based on data f...

Psychiatric disorders impose significant personal, social, and financial costs for individuals, families, and the nation. Despite a large amount of research and several journals focused on psychiatric conditions, there is a paucity of research on psychiatric disorders among Black Americans (i.e., African Americans and Black Caribbeans), particularl...

Social isolation is a significant social problem in the United States that many health and welfare organizations have begun to acknowledge and address. Unfortunately, extremely little research focuses on social isolation among ethnic minority populations. This study investigated the association between social isolation from family and friends and t...

This study examined racial and ethnic differences in professional service use by older African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and Non-Hispanic Whites in response to a serious personal problem. The analytic sample (N = 862) was drawn from the National Survey of American Life. Findings indicated that African Americans and Black Caribbeans were less lik...

Social isolation is a major problem in the United States that has adverse impacts on health and well-being. However, few studies investigate social isolation among African Americans or the impact of social isolation on psychiatric disorders. This study addresses this gap by investigating the impact of objective (absence of contact with others) and...

Objectives Church members are a significant but under-researched source of informal support particularly among adolescents. Church-based support networks are a long-standing and significant feature of religious involvement for Black Americans that provides tangible and psychosocial resources helpful for navigating life challenges. However, questio...

Objectives: Sleep problems are associated with a host of psychiatric disorders and have been attributed to race disparities in health and wellness. Studies of sleep and mental health do not typically consider within-group differences among Blacks. Thus, our understanding of how the sleep–mental health relationship among Caribbean Blacks is limited....

We examined the sociodemographic and religious involvement correlates of church support networks in a nationally representative sample of African Americans across the adult life span. Data from the National Survey of American Life was used for analysis. Ordinary least squares regression was conducted to identify correlates of frequency of contact,...

Although family social support has been linked to numerous psychological, behavioral, and academic outcomes for Black adolescents, little research investigates the family support networks of these youths. Using nationally representative data from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), this study examines the family soc...

The present study examined the impact of criminal justice contact on experiences of everyday discrimination among a national sample of African American men. African American men have a high likelihood of being the targets of major discrimination as well as experiencing disproportionate contact with the criminal justice system. Few studies, however,...

This study uses data from the National Survey of American Life Re-Interview to examine the types and frequency of instrumental support that African Americans exchange with extended family members as well as the demographic and family correlates of these exchanges. Four types of instrumental support are examined: transportation assistance, help with...

Aim: Using a nationally representative sample of African American men, this study investigated the associations between lifetime history of incarceration, discrimination, and mental health (e.g., depressive symptoms and psychological distress). We hypothesized that discrimination would fully mediate the association between incarceration history an...

Background: Despite experiencing conditions associated with higher risk for depression and psychological distress, the mental health of rural African Americans remains understudied. This brief report examines the association between sociodemographic characteristics, self-rated health, and material hardship, and depressive symptoms and psychologica...

This study examines black adolescents’ reports of the most helpful types of social support that they receive from and provide to family members, and whether family support exchanges vary by ethnicity (African American vs. Black Caribbean) and gender. Data for this study are from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), a...

This study examined the use of social workers for assistance with a behavioral health disorder. Data were from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys. The analytic sample included respondents who reported using professional services for assistance with a behavioral health disorder during their lifetime (n = 5,585). Logistic regression w...

Aims We examined the associations between informal social support from church members and social support from extended family members and depressive symptoms within a national probability sample of African American adults ranging in age from 18 to 93. Methods This analysis used data from the National Survey of American Life and accounted for relig...

This study examined symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in a nationally representative sample of African American adults (n = 3,570) and correlations between OCD symptom dimensions and experiences of discrimination. Two categories of discrimination were examined, everyday racial discrimination and everyday nonracial discrimination (e.g....

Objectives: To compare use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) across age cohorts. Design: Secondary analysis of data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys. Participants: Adults born in 1964 or earlier (N = 11,371). Over half (61.3%) are baby boomers and 53% are female. Seventy-five percent of the sample is white,...

Objective: This study tested whether church-based social support buffers the negative effects of discrimination on serious psychological distress (SPD) among three age groups-early, middle, and late adulthood-of African American men. Methods: Negative binominal regression analyses for discrimination and SPD were performed using data from 1,271 A...

Objectives: Black Caribbeans in the United States have been the victims of major discrimination (e.g. unfairly fired, denied a promotion, denied housing). What is not known is the degree to which they also experience more routine forms of everyday discrimination such as receiving poor restaurant service, being perceived as dishonest, and being foll...

This study examined the correlates of the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among a nationally-representative sample of African American adults (n = 3,570). Demographic and several self-rated health variables were examined. Although only 1.6% of the sample met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for OCD, a sizeable proportion of the sample rep...

Background: African American men in the USA experience poorer aging-related health outcomes compared to their White counterparts, partially due to socioeconomic disparities along racial lines. Greater exposure to socioeconomic strains among African American men may adversely impact health and aging at the cellular level, as indexed by shorter leuk...

This study compares the provision and receipt of kin support for Jamaican immigrants in the US and Jamaican nationals residing in Jamaica. Two datasets are utilized for the study. US data is from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) which contains the first national probability sample of Caribbean immigrants in the USA. Data for Jamaican nat...

There is a paradox in research on African Americans and non-Hispanic whites in the utilization of clergy. Research finds that African Americans have higher levels of religious service attendance and higher levels of contact with clergy. Research also finds that despite this, African Americans are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to seek out ass...

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between informal social support from extended family and friends and suicidality among African Americans. Methods: Logistic regression analysis was based on a nationally representative sample of African Americans from the National Survey of American Life (N = 3263). Subjective closeness and frequency...

Data from the 2001–2003 National Survey of American Life are used to investigate the effects of phenotype on everyday experiences with discrimination among African Americans (N = 3343). Latent class analysis is used to identify four classes of discriminatory treatment: (1) low levels of discrimination, (2) disrespect and condescension, (3) characte...

This study examines the correlates of the types of instrumental support exchanges that occur between church members among African Americans. Exchanges of four types of instrumental support are examined: transportation assistance, help with chores, financial assistance and help during illness. Data for this study are from the National Survey of Amer...

This study examined reciprocal support networks involving extended family, friends and church members among African Americans. Our analysis examined specific patterns of reciprocal support (i.e., received only, gave only, both gave and received, neither gave or received), as well as network characteristics (i.e., contact and subjective closeness) a...

We examined social network typologies among African American adults and their sociodemographic correlates. Network types were derived from indicators of the family and church networks. Latent class analysis was based on a nationally representative sample of African Americans from the National Survey of American Life. Results indicated four distinct...

Objective: To investigate the impact of objective and subjective social isolation from extended family members and friends on depressive symptoms and psychological distress among a national sample of older adults. Method: Data for older adults (55 years and above) from the National Survey of American Life ( N = 1,439) were used to assess level o...

Purpose Despite a growing literature on the influence of social support on mental health, little is known about the relationship between social support and specific psychiatric disorders for African Americans, such as PTSD. This study investigated the relationship between social support, negative interaction with family and 12-month PTSD among Afri...

African American and Black Caribbean relations dominate research on interactions across black ethnic divides. Using National Survey of American Life data, we explore a different aspect of black interethnic attitudes: how close these groups feel towards Africans. African Americans and Black Caribbeans were largely similar in their feelings of closen...

This study examines the impact of informal social support from family and friends on the well-being of older African Americans. Analyses are based on a nationally representative sample of older African Americans from the National Survey of American Life (n = 837). Three measures of well-being are examined: life satisfaction, happiness and self-este...

Past research has identified a link between discrimination and health outcomes among people of color. Perceptions of the cause of discrimination (racial versus other) seem to be important for mental health; however, this relationship has not been fully examined for physical health. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, we find that,...

This study investigated the correlates of objective social isolation from extended family members and friends among a national sample of African Americans. The analysis is based upon the African American subsample (n=3,570) of the National Survey of American Life. The dependent variable examines four categories of respondents: 1) socially isolated...

An emerging body of research notes the importance of church-based social support networks in the daily lives of Americans. However, few studies examine church-based support, and especially among ethnic subgroups within the U.S. Black population, such as Caribbean Blacks. This study uses data from the National Survey of American Life to examine demo...

In Reply We agree that our results are based on a small number of respondents who met criteria for major depressive disorder and mood disorders. We were transparent about this and noted sample size as the study’s primary limitation. As stated in our article,1 the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) remains one of the best data sets for this stu...

There is a paucity of research among African Americans and rural residents. Little is known about the association between urbanicity and depression or about the interaction of urbanicity, race/ethnicity, and sex on depression and mood disorder prevalence. To examine the interaction of urbanicity and race/ethnicity on lifetime and 12-month major dep...

This study explores relationships between Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and quality and frequency of involvement with family and friends. Data are from a nationally representative sample of African American and Black Caribbean adults (n = 5191), the National Survey of American Life. SAD was assessed using the DSM-IV World Mental Health Composite In...

Examines combinations of professionals visited for a serious personal problem. The sample includes those aged 55 and above (N = 862) from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Latent class analysis was used to identify groups of respondents based on types of professionals visited. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify factors...

A system includes a computing device for producing a representation of a graphical element on a two dimensional set of image points. A metric value is calculated for each image point in the two dimensional set of image points. The computer device is configured to assign a visual property to image point in the two dimensional set of image points bas...

This study examined demographic and mental health correlates of subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, happiness) using a national sample of older African Americans with psychiatric disorders. We used a subsample of 185 African Americans, 55 and older with at least one of thirteen lifetime psychiatric disorders from The National Survey of...

Mitochondrial disease is a clinically heterogeneous debilitating condition with a minimum birth prevalence of 9.2 per 100,000, and is associated with a reduced life expectancy. The variable clinical phenotype has previously hindered systematic studies making natural history studies largely anecdotal. There is currently no evidence-based treatment f...

African American and Black Caribbean relations are described as strained. Standard portrayals of Black Caribbeans as a “model minority” that has effectively assimilated into the American landscape often make explicit their distinctiveness from and enmity toward African Americans. Analysis using National Survey of American Life data (N = 6,082), exp...

This study examined differences in kin and nonkin networks among African Americans, Caribbean Blacks (Black Caribbeans), and non‐Hispanic Whites. Data are taken from the National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative study of African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and non‐Hispanic Whites. Selected measures of informal support from fami...

This paper explores the relationship between religion and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), with particular interest in religion’s possible influence in the development of OCD and its impact on treatment outcome. The paper begins with a review of theoretical and research literatures concerning religious involvement, research evidence linking rel...

Mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cause a broad spectrum of clinical phenotypes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that voice and swallow problems are a common feature of these diseases. To characterize accurately the prevalence and severity of voice and swallow problems in a large cohort of patients with mitochondrial disease. Patients with proven...

Background and Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been used in the United States for decades. Recently interest has grown in understanding who uses CAM, in what circumstances, and the relationship between alternative and conventional therapies. CAM use is important for social workers because it is a critical but under examine...